The first record of the Turkish snail (Helix lucorum L., 1758) in the

Malacologica Bohemoslovaca (2014), 13: 124–125
ISSN 1336-6939
The first record of the Turkish snail (Helix lucorum L., 1758) in the
Slovak Republic
Tomáš Čejka1 & Juraj Čačaný2
Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Zoology, Dúbravská cesta 9, SK-845 06 Bratislava, Slovak Republic,
e-mail: t.cejka@gmail.com
2
Slovak National Museum, Natural History Museum, Vajanského nábrežie 2, SK-810 06 Bratislava, Slovak Republic,
e-mail: juraj.cacany@gmail.com
1
Čejka T. & Čačaný J., 2014: The first record of the Turkish snail (Helix lucorum L., 1758) in the Slovak Republic. – Malacologica Bohemoslovaca, 13: 124–125. Online serial at <http://mollusca.sav.sk> 18-Dec-2014.
A numerous population of the Turkish snail (Helix lucorum L.) (Mollusca: Gastropoda) has been found for the
first time in the Slovak Republic (Bratislava City, April 2013).
Key words: non-indigenous species, unintentional introduction, urban fauna
Introduction
Helix lucorum is one of widely distributed species of the
genus, with a large range extending from Iran in the east
to Italy in the west (Korábek et al. 2014). It is frequently
used in the food industry (Yıldırım et al. 2004, Mienis &
Rittner 2010) and it is traded in vast quantities and recently has spread to many places beyond its natural distribution, including Spain, England, Czech Republic and
Russia (Quiñonero Salgado et al. 2010, Palmer 2010,
Peltanová et al. 2012, Balashov et al. 2013). The recent
findings of introduced populations demonstrate the potential of this snail to colonise new areas, but tracing back
the sources of the newly established populations is impossible as this would require detailed knowledge of intraspecific geographical variation. Helix lucorum is known to
be conchologically highly variable, with many described
subspecific taxa (Neubert 2014). General conchological
differences between Helix pomatia and Central Europaean
populations of Helix lucorum are provided in Table 1.
Locality and habitat description
A numerous population of the Turkish snail (Fig. 1) was
found in Bratislava City, Ružinov housing estate, along the
Borodáčova Street, April 15, 2013 (Z. Maďarová legit).
Snails were found in ruderal bushes bordering the place of
a former school gym. An open market with fruits and vegetables located nearby might be a source of the introduced
population. The total area of the site is 0.38 ha, Helix lucorum inhabits ca. 10% of the area. The vegetation at the site
was dominated by Ailanthus altissima, Sambucus nigra,
Populus × euroamericana, and Acer platanoides, admixed
with some conifers (Pinus nigra, Thuja spp.) (Fig. 2). Estimated population density was 3 ind./m2.
Table 1. Conchological differences between snails Helix pomatia and Europaean populations of Helix lucorum.
Shell diameter
Shell shape
Shell colour
Helix lucorum
Height 30–60 mm, width 30–60 mm.
Compressed, spherical.
Broad red- or dark brown irregular bands go along
the whorls1, the background colour is whitishyellow. Bands on almost all the whorls width.
Shell surface
Finely striped.
Aperture
Small, slightly flattened and laterally oblique,
apertural rim folded back over the small umbilicus
in the columellar area.
Inside grey with violetish hue and with bands.
Small, covered in adults, not always completely
closed.
Smaller, blunt and, distinct.
Umbilicus
Apex
Helix pomatia
Height 30–50 mm, width 30–50 mm.
Globose.
Light brownish, often classified as chamois or
creamy white. This colour is often interrupted by
wide cinnamon-brown stripes. The stripes may be
either distinct or ill-defined.
Distinct lateral growth stripes. Wrinkled surface
giving the appearance of faint spiral lines.
Large with a slightly expanded brown lip that
is broadly reflected at the columella, partially
covering the umbilicus. Apertural rim rounded and
curved back to form an apertural lip.
Tiny, narrow, partly covered by the reflected
columellar margin.
Not blunt.
Bands may merge together, so that little can be seen of the whitish ground colour. In very lightly coloured shell specimens, the lateral
discontinuities (“growth stripes”) can be more prominent, so the shell looks laterally striped or chequered (Nordsieck 2014).
1
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Acknowledgements
We thank our friend Zuzana Maďarová (Bratislava), for
that she walks through the world with her eyes open, so
she drew our attention to strange-looking snails. Many
thanks also go to Ondřej Korábek (Charles University in
Prague) for his valuable comments to manuscript.
References
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Fig. 1. The original shell of Helix lucorum from Bratislava
City.
Fig. 2. Partial view of the site with Helix lucorum.
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